


Watching over them

by Moira_chan



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Frisk is 8-9, Frisk is a Sweetheart, Gen, Post-Pacifist Route, Sans is a not-so-good dad, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-06 14:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5419916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moira_chan/pseuds/Moira_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toriel only wanted to find the perfect gift to give Frisk on the human celebration called “Christmas”, but everyone decides to help and things don’t quite go as planned.<br/>Meanwhile, Sans discovers that babysitting Frisk also has advantages – it might even be worth all the work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Christmas? Can you eat it?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> Christmas is coming, so have a Christmas-themed fic. There will be 5-10 chapters, I think. Also, this was written solely for the purpose of Frisk being cute, so... I hope it doesn't bore you too much.  
> As usual, all my thanks to LeiaLibelle for helping me with the grammar and all that stuff. ♥

“My child, be good while I am away, alright?”

Toriel seemed as worried as always, but Frisk reassured her with a vigorous nod of approval. She smiled and tenderly stroke their head – then she stopped looking at her child for a second and opened the closet to retrieve her long wool coat. Frisk’s gaze followed her movements with attention as well as a bit of puzzlement.  
Had they been less quiet and not the ever so placid child they’d always been, they probably would have jumped when Sans put his hand on their shoulder without a warning. They didn’t, however, and the skeleton couldn’t hold back a soft sigh of disappointment; but he knew the kid would react that way, anyway, so he was quick to shrug and laugh it off.

“Don’t worry, Tori,” he said, grinning as he casually slipped his free hand inside the pocket of his shorts. “I’ll take good care of your kid, so go and have fun.”

Much to Sans’s amusement, Toriel blushed slightly at hearing Frisk being called _her_ child, but she quickly hid her embarrassment behind a grateful smile.

“Thank you, Sans. I know I can trust you to keep your promise.”

He scratched the back of his skull almost nervously – that was his turn to blush now. So that was her opinion of him; although he’d never actually kept, nor even made any promise to begin with... Well, aside from that one he’d made through the door so long ago, before even meeting the kid, of course. He sighed, and the lady to whom he had never been able to say no leant down to place one last loving kiss on Frisk’s forehead. She really was a good mom, Sans thought absentmindedly.

“I will be back before noon, hopefully.”

“Got it.”

Frisk approved too, nodding, and gently waved their hand at Toriel who waved back. She then went to the door, opened it, and yet another smile later she had left. Sans waited for the door to close behind Toriel, before letting go of the kid’s shoulder and gently patting them on their upper back.

“Well, kiddo... Would you like to watch TV or something?”

Babysitting wasn’t really his thing, to be honest, as it usually required a lot of concentration and he was way too lazy for that; but Frisk was no longer a baby, were they? Besides, he wouldn’t be alone with the child for too long, since Toriel had sworn she would be back in a few hours...  
Thinking of Tori, Sans kind of wondered what she was up to, by the way. She had told the human and him that she had to _run some errands_ , but she had kept her intentions very unclear – the skeleton only knew for sure (from the text she had sent him two days before) that she planned to get something for Frisk. A gift, probably; now that he thought about it, the surface was starting to look more and more like Snowdin these days, and he remembered Papyrus mentioning some kind of human celebration that was supposed to happen around this time of year... What was the name his bro had told him, already? _Crust mash_ , he’d said, or _crisis match_ – Papyrus hadn’t seemed to remember it very well and Sans wasn’t sure at all he could trust any of those names to be the actual one, to be honest. Well, anyway, that probably was some kind of annual tradition without a real meaning, and being the ever-so doting mom she was, Tori had decided to use it as an opportunity to try and make her human child happy. Heh, she was totally spoiling them, like always.

He was drawn away from his thoughts by the sudden feeling of the kid pulling on the sleeve of his jacket. He lowered his gaze to look at them and, when he understood they wanted him to follow them, he let them drag him to the living room, where they both took a seat on the couch – so the kid was okay with watching TV, apparently. That was good news, because that basically meant a lot less work for him; not that he didn’t want to play with Frisk or anything, but... watching TV with them was a lot easier, and just as entertaining, you see? And he wasn’t that great at playing with kids, anyway. Sure, he’d spent a bunch of time testing out Papyrus’s puzzles in the Underground, and pretending to be a sentry just to please him, but Frisk... They were different. They didn’t talk much, at least not when they could be understood without saying anything, so it was rather difficult to know what would make them happy.

Well, they were a kid, so Sans assumed an interesting kids’ show would keep them occupied at least for a moment. As for himself, he’d try not to let Tori’s comfortable couch convince him to take a quick nap, like he usually did whenever he sat there in silence for too long; he couldn’t promise anything, though. But even if he did fall asleep, it wasn’t like the kid wouldn’t be able to take care of themself for one hour or two – they had done just that in the Underground, after all, and for an even longer time.  
He switched channels once and felt the child’s tiny hand on his bony wrist.

“Want the remote? Here.”

Frisk smiled, took it, and changed the channel on their own until they found a cartoon they deemed interesting. Sans didn’t bother listening to whatever the plot of this episode was. As long as he kept a distant eye on the kid, he was fine. Just as he had predicted, it wasn’t long before his eye sockets started closing of their own accord, but... It couldn’t be helped, and he was quite sure the child wouldn’t even move from the couch, anyway.  
When he woke up a while later, however, the switched-off TV and the empty seat next to him proved him wrong.

“Kiddo?” he called, still a little drowsy from his nap.

He raised a hand to scratch the back of his skull and realized a thin blanket was loosely covering him. This... He lazily pushed it aside and couldn’t suppress a yawn, which quickly turned into a big grin. This kid was definitely too nice for their own good.  
Now fully awake, Sans got on his feet and left the living room to look for Frisk. After a short while, he found them in the kitchen. They were sitting cross-legged on the counter, their eyes apparently staring through the window as they munched on a slice of one of the, like, three hundred pies that Tori baked everyday. Sans didn’t have time to say anything, though; as soon as they saw him, the kid got off the counter (without letting go of their pie) and ran to him. Once again, they grabbed his sleeve, and pointed to the kitchen window with their free hand.

“What is it? You gotta tell me, kid, ‘cause you’re not my bro, I can’t see right through you.”

He smiled, and Frisk put their crooked fingers in front of their mouth as they let out a soft chuckle. They didn’t speak, but Sans wasn’t surprised; once again, it wasn’t unusual for them to keep silent whenever possible, and only open their mouth when words were absolutely necessary. In this case, they weren’t – evidence being that a quick glance through the window sufficed to make the skeleton understand precisely what the child wanted to show him.  
Outside the house, everything – every building, every tree, every square inch of ground – was covered in thick snow. Sans felt his usual grin grow even wider as his heart melted from suddenly remembering fond memories; it all just looked like the view he had from his and Papyrus’s living room in Snowdin... It all just looked like _home_. Except this wasn’t the Underground, and their _home_ was no longer trapped behind the barrier.

When he finally turned his head to look at Frisk again, he found them staring at him with a pleading look on their face (how they managed to do so with their eyes closed remained a mystery).  
Sans let out a half-amused half-tired sigh. Having grown up with Papyrus, he knew the meaning of that expression way too well.

“Let me guess... You want to go outside, am I right?”

The child instantly nodded energetically, beaming, and the skeleton understood he wouldn’t have a choice. Well... He gave the kid a warm smile as they started toying with his bony fingers, as if nervously waiting for his answer, and he shrugged. Papyrus had asked him the same question more than once when they’d first arrived in Snowdin, and he had never been able to turn him down – so it was only fair he agreed to go and play with Frisk as well.

“It can’t be helped, then,” he said, before winking at the human. “Besides, I don’t have the heart to say no.”

Despite still not really opening neither their eyes nor their mouth, Frisk seemed happy, and Sans secretly hoped it was at least partly due to his hilarious joke.  
A few minutes later, the both of them were standing in the entryway when Sans suddenly remembered they couldn’t quite leave just like this. They were at Tori’s house, after all; and although she had given him her spare set of keys when he had agreed to watch over the kid today, the lady would totally worry herself to death if she came home to find them gone. He didn’t blame her, though, this was just how she was – if anything, it made him smile, actually.

He took his phone out of the pocket of his shorts, planning to send her a quick text, just to keep her informed of their whereabouts, and could only notice that she’d beaten him to it.

_Dear Sans,  
I hope you and Frisk are having fun and that they are being a good child, although I trust them not to cause you any trouble. I also would like to inform you that I will probably be a bit late, as I ran into your brother a little earlier. He was searching for you, but kin_

Sans blinked, until he realized she had actually sent him two messages. Exceeding the characters limit, huh – a typical beginner’s mistake, as expected from Tori.

 _Dear Sans,_  
_I am sorry about my previous text. I meant to say: “kindly offered to help me with my current task.” Thank you again for agreeing to watch over Frisk while I am away. ]: )_  
_Sincerely, Toriel_

He quickly typed his answer: **ok.**  
In retrospect, he could have written a bit more; but since she was with Papyrus, now, there was no way Tori would come back before noon, and it was barely half past ten – the kid would have plenty of time to play in the snow, and they’d still be able to get back home before their mom. Thus, he opened the door without a second thought and got out of the house.  
He tried to, at least, until Frisk stopped him again by grabbing his sleeve. Again. He turned around to give them a confused look, but was met with colorful wool and suddenly remembered. The kid. They were a human, not a monster; Tori always made them wear a bunch of stuff whenever they had to go out. They couldn’t leave the house in shorts and slippers with just a t-shirt and a jacket on. They had to actually put on boots and a scarf and... similar things.

“Sorry, I’d forgotten ‘bout that.”

Sans closed the door to keep the cold from entering the house and took the scarf that Frisk was silently asking him to hold. He then lowered his gaze to look at them. They had let go of his sleeve the moment he had stepped back inside, and soon sat on the floor, struggling to put on black shearling boots. Once they were done, they grabbed their coat, all the while leaving on the floor half of the stuff they had apparently taken out of the closet, and Sans decided he might as well help.  
He kneeled down to pick up the child’s winter hat, which – just like the scarf – looked an awful lot like it had been lovingly knitted by Tori herself.

“Hey, kiddo, come here.”

Frisk stopped fighting with their coat to obey. While they calmly stood in front of him, Sans helped them put on their hat, and wrapped their long scarf around their neck. Only then could he make sure the kid was correctly wearing their coat.

“Here you go,” he said, zipping it up for them.

Frisk thanked him with a soft smile. Heh, he didn’t really get why humans were supposed to wear all this stuff before going out, but at least he’d remembered to do as Tori would have and the kid seemed happy; honestly, this was all that mattered. He couldn’t care less about the rest.  
He opened the door and, this time, the both of them left the house.

* * *

It took Sans and Frisk a bit more than five minutes to walk to Toriel’s school, that its owner had decided to close all week because of the over-abundant snow.  
They could have stayed closer to the kid’s and their mom’s home and just played in the garden, but the school had a far bigger playground with swings and other installations that the child could use if they wanted to try another game. Besides, there were also benches on which Sans could take a seat while watching them play around in the snow – no other place in the town King Asgore had founded here on the surface met these standards.

“Have fun, kiddo,” said Sans, softly patting Frisk on their back. “If you need me, I’ll be sitting on this conveniently-placed bench over there.”

The human didn’t answer, as usual, so he just left and took a seat on the bench. He had a good view of the entire playground from here; he could see the kid by only turning his head a little. They were now sitting on their knees in the thick white snow. It wasn’t like they could hurt themself here, but Sans still appreciated being able to watch over them without having to move – Tori would kill him if anything happened to Frisk and he wasn’t there to help, after all.

Somehow, watching the child move around in the snow, their feet leaving small imprints on the white canvas that seemed to cover the entire world, their hands picking up some of it to make small snowballs... It reminded him of the days he had spent monitoring the Underground from his sentry station or his hot-dog stands. Of all those times when the kid had come by, passed him by, or waved their hand at him and he’d waved back; of the times when they had stopped to buy one hot-dog or two, or a hot-cat, and he’d ended up piling up head-dogs on their little human head. Twenty-nine was the limit.  
He smiled to himself at the memory, only to be a little startled when he noticed Frisk had approached him to tug at his sleeve again.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Want to show me something?”

The kid nodded and Sans got up, agreeing to follow them. Not too far from them stood two snowballs, the first one almost as big as the kid themself, and the second one a bit smaller.

“It’s a snowman,” Frisk explained before Sans could ask them another question.

Their voice sounded soft, as usual, and the skeleton thought it was a shame they didn’t use it more often.

“Not yet,” he answered. “Wait a second.”

He gently patted the child’s head, before picking up the smallest snowball and carefully putting it onto the other one, thus completing the snowman... or not, actually. As he took a step back to have a better look at it, Sans could only realize the snowman didn’t have a face yet. Thankfully, he had an idea to fix this.  
He left the kid with their new friend for a second, and came back with a dozen small stones he’d found somewhere else in the playground. Then, he pressed two of those into the head of the snowman, so that it would at least have eyes.

“There,” he said, admiring his own work with a big grin. “Now your snowman totally rocks, doesn’t it?”

Hearing Frisk chuckle only made him even prouder. The child silently asked him for the stones he hadn’t used, and picked a few ones to give the snowman a big smile. Then, they grabbed their phone inside the pocket of their coat and quickly took a picture of their finished creation. Their smile suited them so well that Sans felt like making them laugh again.

“Hey, kid,” he started, slipping both of his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “You do know how to greet a snowman, don’t ya?”

Frisk turned their head to shoot him a questioning glance, and his usual grin grew wider.

“You say, _ice to meet you_.”

The child instantly put their hands in front of their mouth to hide the fact they were chuckling again – just as Sans had hoped. He asked them to send him the picture they’d taken of their snowman, just in case he felt like remembering this moment sometime in the future; they agreed and he took his phone out of his pocket, only to realize it was already half past eleven when he looked at the screen.

“Wow, it’s getting late,” he commented. “How ‘bout we take our leave and go grab something to eat, kiddo?”

It wasn’t like Tori would be home soon, anyway, since she hadn’t sent a single text since her last one, and simply being with Papyrus usually required a lot of time; besides, Sans was starting to get hungry, too. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t had a meal in, like... at least two hours, which was a very long time, given that he usually made sure to eat breakfast at least twice every morning.  
Upon hearing his suggestion, Frisk nodded, and so the deal was made. The child put their phone back in their pocket and held out their hand, apparently wanting the skeleton to hold it-

It was bright red, though, and Sans was pretty sure human skin _wasn’t_ supposed to be this color. His eye sockets widened, his grin getting slightly nervous.

“Huh, kid... Are human hands actually supposed to get this red?” he asked, trying his best not to sound as concerned as he was.

The truth was, he really didn’t want anything to happen to the monsters’ favorite human; and that wasn’t just because Tori would kill him if her precious child was hurt. Frisk didn’t seem to understand his question, however, and they kept giving their own hand a puzzled look as Sans took it in his bony fingers.  
Being a skeleton, he’d never been bothered by things like temperatures, but he still could feel whether the things he touched were hot or cold or vaguely in between – and the kid’s hands were basically as cold as his and Papyrus’s own bones used to be when they lived in Snowdin. Which was... not the recommended temperature for a human body. Probably.

He held back a sigh, sincerely hoping that moving to a warmer place would solve the problem, and that Frisk wouldn’t remain hurt forever; it wasn’t the case, probably, since they seemed... Dammit. The opportunity was too good, he couldn’t help himself.

“I guess that snow problem,” he said, “since you look pretty chill about that, but we really should go someplace where we won’t get chilled to the bone.”

For a second, the human’s neutral expression seemed to both admire him for his ever-so lame puns and judge him hard for drastically changing the mood of their conversation in less than three seconds; then the child burst into laughter and Sans had no choice but to do the same.

“Really, though, kid,” the skeleton managed to say once they’d both more or less caught their breath. “Let’s go to Grillby’s, okay?”

Frisk nodded, a big smile still plastered on their face, and put both of their hands inside their pockets to keep them at least a bit warm. They left the playground, then, and headed to Grillby’s.

* * *

The new bar/restaurant that Grillby had opened here on the surface when they’d all left the Underground a few months ago was remarkably similar to the one he used to have in Snowdin.  
Although he had made a few changes to the menu to accommodate the few humans that sometimes stumbled upon their town when lost or fulfilling their desire for adventure, Grillby still served the same monsters everyday, and Sans had remained a regular. The building itself was still as warm as ever, probably thanks to the fire of its owner, and everyone stopped their chatter for a second to greet Sans when he pushed the door open.

“Hey, everyone,” he greeted them back.

He held the door open long enough for Frisk to get inside, too, and the both of them took a seat at the bar. The kid shoot him a questioning glance upon realizing there was no whoopee cushion on their stool, this time, but he shrugged it off with a grin.

“So, what’re you having, kiddo?”

They kept silent for a second, thinking, before speaking in their soft voice that the skeleton almost didn’t hear in the midst of everyone’s babbling.

“Fries,” was all he could understand.

“Heh, good choice. Grillby, I’ll have fries too.”

As silent as ever, the bartender briefly nodded and left, only to reappear a short while later with their double order of fries. He left both plates on the bar before them and went back to drying plates and glasses. After Frisk refused to get any ketchup, Sans poured half the bottle on his own fries, and they both started eating in silence.  
Frisk’s hands were still way too red for a human’s, and the skeleton was feeling concerned again. He’d thought the warmth in here would help them get back to normal, but... it wasn’t that simple, right? Humans really were weird. And complicated. Still, Frisk looked happy, slowly eating their fries while swinging their legs in between their stool and the bar.

“So... tastes good, huh?” he tried, in hopes to have at least a vague conversation with the child.

They only nodded, though; and a second later, they were slowly moving their stool to try and get closer to where Grillby was. Sans noticed it, of course, and spent a whole minute wondering what the hell had gotten to them until sudden realization dawned on him – oh. Of course.  
They were still shivering a little. He let out a soft chuckle.

“Hey, Grillby, mind getting a little closer? The poor kid is freezing.”

The fire monster seemed a little surprised (well, as much as he could, given that he didn’t exactly have a face to show any expression at all), but complied anyway. When he realized the warmth emanating from his whole body was making Frisk smile wider and shiver a lot less, he was even nice enough to put away the glass he had been drying and place his hands over Frisk’s, still making sure he didn’t actually touch them. In a few minutes, their skin had come back to a much more human-like color, and they’d eaten half of their fries without their meal getting cold.  
Sans gave them a wide grin and patted their head, just because he felt like it. Now that he was sure he hadn’t endangered the kid in any way, the only thing left to do was to text Tori to let her know Frisk had just had lunch, and once they would be done eating the both of them could go back home.


	2. Nevermind, it's just a human tradition (do not eat traditions).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 2!  
> This time, Frisk is cute, Sans forgets they're a fragile human child, and Papyrus makes a cameo. Also, you might see the plot if you squint (it's there I swear. it's just a really talented ninja plot that hides under three tons of fluff.) Once again, this is nothing special, but I hope you'll like it nonetheless.  
> It's a bit early, I think, but still... Merry Christmas everyone! ♥

**hey tori, how’s it going with my bro? don’t worry bout lunch, i got your kid something to eat.**

As soon as he left Grillby’s bar, Sans sent his text without even reading it over and immediately put his phone back inside the pocket of his shorts. He’d have another look at it when he and the kid are back at Toriel’s place. Now, he just had to focus on bringing the child back home, and then he’d have some time to relax-  
Speaking of Frisk, where had they gone? They had been right next to him only a moment ago, but had somehow disappeared during the three seconds he had needed to write his message... His eye sockets quickly roamed his surroundings as he called them.

“Hey, kiddo? Come on, we gotta leave now-”

He stopped talking the very second he located them, though, and his usual grin slightly widened. Here they were; standing only a few steps away from him... with something he instantly recognized as a _snowball_ inside their already reddening again hands. Oh, he knew exactly what they were planning – but if that was the game they wanted to play, then he’d be damned if he let them win so easily.  
With a knowing smile, they threw the snowball at him, and he dodged it effortlessly, just by stepping to the side. The snowball crashed on Grillby’s door, making a mess of white snow on the dark wood.

“Heh, is that all you’ve got?” said the skeleton with a shrug. “Sorry, kid, but you’re gonna have to try a lot harder if you wanna hit me.”

He winked, and felt his empty chest fill up with a warm feeling as he heard Frisk giggle softly. A second later, however, he had to move to dodge another projectile, and the sensation was gone as he jumped to the side again, thus avoiding being hit by a third well-placed snowball. The child was rather good at aiming, he was surprised; but that still was far from enough to even skim past him.  
Still keeping an eye on Frisk just to be sure they didn’t hurt themself, or bother anyone by accident, he led them to a less crowded place just outside the town, all the while expertly dodging all the snow they sent at him. Any other child would have gotten frustrated and given up at some point – but this child wasn’t just _any_ child. They were determined. They never just ‘gave up’. They kept going on, and on, without ever losing their bright smile, or stopping chuckling behind their hands every time they missed their shoot. It was rather, er... _great_ , yeah, they were really great and all – but Sans was starting to get tired. Heh, you couldn’t blame him; he was but an old pile of bones, after all.

Stepping aside to swiftly dodge yet another snowball, he slipped behind a nearby tree and leaned down to take a handful of snow; just a second later, he was behind Frisk’s back, and his grin grew even wider as he approached them quickly enough to stuff down their coat all the snow he’d been holding, without them even realizing he was here. The kid gasped in surprise, and Sans let out a small, proud laugh.

“Looks like I win.”

He let go of Frisk’s hood as soon as he felt them move. When they turned around, though, he couldn’t help feeling rather... uneasy – the look they were giving him was... weird... Shit, had he scared them or something? ‘cause that wasn’t what he had been aiming for at all, really; damn, he really shouldn’t have done that.

“How...,” was all the kid said, in a tone that sounded like they were deep in thought – but neither afraid, nor angry, nor on the verge of crying, and that was good news.

Sans relaxed a little, but still let out a nervous laugh.

“Took a shortcut,” he explained. “Huh... sorry for taking you off guard like that. Guess I didn’t really have the _guts_ to face you down.”

Man, his puns were really lame when he was feeling guilty. Frisk didn’t seem to mind, however, since they instantly put their bare hands in front of their mouth to giggle again. A genuine, relieved smile crept up on Sans’s face; this kid was definitely too good to him. He put a hand on their shoulder and gently brushed the snow off their neck with the other. He then went back to guiltily scratching the back of his skull, silently hoping his previous gesture had been enough to prevent the child from being mad at him – not only because Tori wouldn’t ever ask anything of him again if she learnt about what he’d done... but also because he found he kinda liked playing in the snow with Frisk, after all. Maybe. At least for a while.  
Luckily, the kid no longer seemed at all bothered by the snow, now turned cold water, that probably still ran down their neck and spine. They wore a big smile instead, which soon turned into the light kind of chuckle that never failed to make the skeleton feel better, even just a tad bit. Their happiness was just so... contagious.

“What is it, kid?” he asked.

The child stepped one inch closer to him, and without a warning put their short arms around him to pull him into a tight hug. Sans almost took a step back in surprise; but this kid was stronger than they looked, and had no problem keeping him right where he stood.

“Not angry,” they simply said when he shot them a questioning glance.

Then they went back to burying their happy face into his shirt where his belly would have been if he’d had any. The skeleton sighed. They left him no choice but to put his arms around them as well. Well... At least they wouldn’t hold any grudges against him for the whole snow-down-their-neck incident, he thought as he absentmindedly ruffled their hair. Now, if they could just call it a day and head back home-  
That’s when the child decided to nuzzle the area right under his ribs, and his eye sockets shot wide open.

“Wow, what’re you doing, kiddo- W-wait!”

He couldn’t hold back a short laugh, but was quick to grab the child by their shoulders and push them away from him lightly. Damn, he could feel his own cheekbones heating up, now; unluckily for him, it didn’t take more than a few seconds for Frisk to understand they had just been _tickling_ him inadvertently, and when a big, mischievous smile appeared on their face, Sans knew he was done for.

“Hey! Hang on, kid, have mercy!”

But his pleas went unheard. Frisk’s hands were directly aiming for his most sensitive bones, now, and with how agile they were it quickly got difficult to stop them; in the end, the skeleton had no choice but to grab their hands in his bony fingers, and use all the force he had to try and prevent them from moving again. His grin grew wider as the kid started pouting in a frustrated manner; only to fade again when he entirely took in just how _cold_ their small, human hands actually were.  
Once again, the cold hadn’t ever bothered him – but he was pretty sure humans couldn’t stand it as well as skeletons, and that... was a bit alarming, to say the least. With all this playing and tickling, he’d almost forgotten that Frisk wasn’t wearing gloves.

“Kid, your hands are freezing,” he said, as if the child wasn’t aware of that already – but they were, judging by weird look they were quick to give him as an answer.

He sighed and untangled their fingers to take the child’s hands in between his own. His gesture proved inefficient, however – unlike a certain sentient flame, his old bones weren’t really famous for giving out any kind of warmth... He should have thought about that. Defeated, he shrugged and gave Frisk a slightly apologetic look.

“Huh... Sorry, kid, I’m not Grillby. I’m just waaay cooler than him.”

His grin widened when the child giggled. He had gotten the reaction he had been hoping for; he hadn’t quite expected what came next, though.

“But...,” Frisk said, in their soft, barely ever used voice, “he’s a lot hotter.”

He chuckled. Heh, that one was easy, but still, this child... He felt so proud of them right now.

“Can’t argue with that,” he answered. “But...”

Without further explanation, he brought the kid’s hands to the pockets of his jacket and quickly slipped them inside, where it was warm and covered in soft fur. Frisk smiled, apparently enjoying the feeling – and all in all, everything would have been perfect, if a strong gust of wind hadn’t appeared out of nowhere all of a sudden to lash out all of its force on Sans’s back, making the both of them lose balance and fall in the process.  
The skeleton gasped in surprise as he slipped, but Frisk still didn’t let go of him, and a second later the white snow on the ground caught them both. It took Sans a short while to come back to his senses, only to find the child lying next to him. They exchanged a quick glance, and Frisk instantly burst into laughter as Sans gave them a relieved smile.

Keeping his eye sockets on them, he sat cross-legged, but the kid didn’t follow his example – they took a few more minutes just to lay in the snow, their ever closed eyes still somehow focused on the white sky. When they finally had enough of giggling and waving their hands and legs to move the snow around them, they sat as well. There were cold, white snowflakes everywhere in their brown hair now, although those soon started melting. The both of them stood up, and when Sans put a hand on the kid’s head he could only realize they were nothing short of drenched.

“I think it’s time to go home, definitely,” was his conclusion, and the kid immediately agreed with a firm nod.

* * *

By the time they arrived at Toriel’s house, it had started snowing.  
Sans unlocked the door with the lady’s spare key while Frisk waited patiently by his side, not even bothering to shelter themself under the eaves of the roof. It took him a few seconds, mostly because the keychain Toriel had gave him held, like, three hundred keys, and he couldn’t remember which one he was supposed to use on the front door – but again, he had never been good at memorizing that kind of stuff. Not only did he tend to forget his own keys a lot, but Papyrus was usually the one who kept the whole set.  
Once he finally managed to open the door, though, he stepped aside to let the kid enter first. Frisk took off their boots, but still took the time to carefully place them back inside the closet before dashing to... well, Sans had no idea where they were going, but they sure seemed to be in a hurry. Not really wanting to upset Tori by dirtying her entryway, he took off his slippers as well and, for the lack of a better spot, left them next to the door.

As he was wondering what to do now, he felt something tugging his sleeve and turned his head to see Frisk. Oh, so they were back; and they were handing him a bright orange towel. So that’s what they had been so eager to find and bring back?

“Thanks, kiddo,” he said with a smile, accepting the towel.

Just as cold and hot temperatures, rain or snow on his skull didn’t bother him at all, but he guessed Tori would still appreciate it if he dried his bones and his clothes before sitting on her sofa, or even wandering through her house. He thus started wiping his skull, all the while looking absentmindedly at the child still brightly smiling at him – until a sudden _drip_ made him realize that a drop of melted snow had just fallen from Frisk’s wet hair to land on the ground.

His eye sockets widened and he quickly put the towel on the kid’s head instead.

“Look at you, kid, you’re even more drenched than me,” he gently scolded them, all the while rubbing their hair with the towel. “And I’m already soaked to the bone.”

He couldn’t see the child’s face under the towel, but he definitely heard them chuckle. To think the first thing they’d thought about once they’d gotten home had been to find a towel for _him_ , when they were this drenched... They were definitely too nice for their own good, to the point that they reminded him of Papyrus sometimes.  
His smile grew softer at the thought of his brother, and he finished drying the kid’s hair in silence. After that, he helped them get out of their coat and scarf, which they put back in the closet, and sighed but still offered to clean the mess they had made running through the house with their hair wet, while they ran a bath for themself.

Half an hour later, he’d left his jacket to dry on a chair in the kitchen and was sitting in front of the TV again when a pajama-clad Frisk climbed up on the sofa and curled up next to him, burying their face against his side. They had wrapped their hair in a towel, so Sans put his hand on their upper back instead.

“You comfy there, buddy?” he asked.

Frisk gave him a firm nod as they drew up their legs to their chest. The skeleton grabbed the remote and handed it to the kid so that they could choose whatever channel they wished to watch. While they made their choice, he reached for his phone inside his pocket, and wasn’t surprised to notice he had received a text from Toriel.  
In an unnecessary long message – just as expected from her –, she thanked him for treating the kid to dinner, promised she would repay him (although there was really no need to; he’d asked Grillby to put the bill on his tab after all), and excused herself again for taking so long. She would be home in a few hours, she swore, and hoped Frisk was being a good child. Sans smiled when he read that line. From the corner of his eye socket, he glanced at Frisk, who was still switching channels; had they, if only once in their life, not been a “good child”? He didn’t think so, honestly.

**don’t worry, your kid is being nice and all** , he typed. **see ya.**

He then turned his attention to the child again. They seemed to have found something interesting to watch, given that they were no longer pressing any buttons on the remote. Leaning down, he rested his skull on their head and looked at the TV.

“So, what’re we watching?”

Frisk gently placed the remote next to themself on the couch but didn’t answer.

“Heh, you could say, _it’s TV determined_ ,” Sans went on, and then proceeded to grin at his own lame joke while the kid giggled as well. “So, what is it...”

Ads were still playing on the screen, so he had no other way of knowing but to wait. Luckily, it didn’t take too long, for once; a few minutes only later, the image changed to that of a snowy village, or town maybe, and some nice music started playing. It was a series, Sans learned as he kept watching – something about a family gathering at the end of December to celebrate _Christmas_ -  
Oh. Yeah, Christmas. That was the name of the human celebration that was supposed to happen around this time of year, then. Good thing to know. He’d try to remember that; Papyrus sure would be thrilled to learn it had nothing to do with any kind of crisis, in the end. Anyway, as the first episode went on, it was revealed the youngest girl in the family had a massive crush on her cousin, who somehow happened to be seated right next to her during dinner or something like that, expect he only talked about... Sans didn’t really care, actually; he was a lot more interested in the whole Christmas thing, to be honest. He wasn’t sure he could understand it well, given that he’d just started learning about it, and only through the information he could gather from watching the TV screen, but.... it kind of reminded him of something.

“You know, kiddo,” he started, talking slowly, “it’s funny, ‘cause us monsters used to have something similar, back in Snowdin...”

He felt the child move under his arm. He looked down at them, only to find out they were completely focused on him now, as if asking him to continue.

“I mean, you’ve probably seen the tree in the center of the town, haven’t ya?” he complied – Frisk instantly nodded. “So, you see, when kids- and adults too, but mostly kids- when they’re good, there’s this man, Santa... He leaves gifts for them under the tree; so basically, once in a while, you’ll go check the tree and you’ll find a present for ya.”

He had thought the human _Christmas_ thing was rather similar to this typically Snowdinian trend, at first, but the more the series went on, the less he could ignore the differences between both traditions. For example, first of all – the tree seemed to be in the middle of this family’s living room, and not in the village for everyone to share. Also, from what Papyrus had told him and what he was currently watching, this event only seemed to happen once in the entire year; whereas monsters never failed to reward a good kid. Hell, some even bought their children presents when they were feeling down, just to make them feel better.  
(Of course, the fact that all gifts under the tree were said to be from “Santa” was but a masquerade to make kids believe a superhero was constantly watching over them; but Frisk was still a kid, too, so Sans wouldn’t tell them that.)

“My bro is really cool, so he gets presents from Santa quite often,” he added, unable to prevent his tone from sounding proud.

“Like the action figures you bought for him?”

The skeleton froze as he heard the soft, quiet voice of the kid snuggled against him.

“Huh... I-I told you, kiddo, they’re from... Santa...”

Frisk didn’t speak again but they shook their head, as if clearly telling him that they didn’t believe at all what he’d just said. Huh... He sighed. He hadn’t been really convincing, had he? Well, at least, you couldn’t blame him for not trying. Wasn’t his fault that this kid was too smart and no longer believed in Santa. Still, he hoped Tori wasn’t planning to get them a gift, and then try to trick them into thinking it was from Santa, because... that definitely wouldn’t work with this child.

“Well, it’s still a shame you humans only receive gifts once every year,” he said, hoping that would put an end to the current topic of their discussion. “When is that ‘Christmas’, by the way?”

For a second, Frisk looked like they were deep in thought; they kept intently staring at their own hands as they extended a finger after another... until they suddenly stopped, and showed the skeleton both of their hands. He found himself faced with their right palm, whereas only two of their left fingers were up – seven... seven days?  
So, in a week, then. No wonder why Toriel seemed so stressed out about finding the perfect gift for her precious child.

Sans grinned and softly patted the top of the kid’s head, where their hair was still wrapped up in their towel. Frisk instantly curled up against him again, and they proceeded to watch what was left of the series on TV.

* * *

The night had already covered the entire town in darkness, and Sans had already almost fallen asleep twice when he finally heard the front door open.  
He had a quick look at the kid next to him, but they hadn’t moved this time; so they’d spent the whole afternoon watching Christmas movies and series on TV... and speaking of Christmas, Sans had learned a great deal about it; stuff like, how humans bought gifts for each of their loved ones on this specific day, and how only little kids still believed all presents were from the human Santa, who by the way was no superhero, but an old man with a beard; he should probably tell Tori about that some time. When Frisk wasn’t around to hear their mom trying her best to prepare the best Christmas party for them.

“Sans? My child?” he heard Toriel’s voice coming from the entryway. “We have returned from our trip!”

“I hope you are not asleep, brother! For you must hear me, the great Papyrus, as I tell you of our eventful adventures today!”

She had brought his brother back with her, apparently. Sans’s grin widened, and he slowly moved his hand against Frisk’s back – it seemed like they had fallen asleep... but they hadn’t, given that they soon sat up again (they had been lying on his lap for a good while now). They had discarded their towel a while ago, since their hair was dry anyway, and now it was nothing short of messy.  
Sans held back a chuckle, and put his hand on the kid’s shoulder as he got off the couch. A few seconds later, the both of them joined Toriel and Papyrus in the entryway.

“Human!” Papyrus exclaimed as soon as he noticed Frisk.

The kid instantly smiled, and rushed to jump into his open arms. The sight made Sans’s non-existent heart melt; Toriel seemed happy, too, even more so when his brother stepped closer to her so that Frisk could kiss her on the cheek. She kissed them back, on their forehead.

“Since it is getting late, may I suggest we all eat dinner together tonight?” she offered – a proposition that the two skeleton brothers were quick to accept.

That’s how, a short while later, Sans found himself next to Toriel in her kitchen, sitting on the counter as he helped her with the cooking – or, more accurately, watched her work, all the while lazily handing her every utensil she asked him for.

“By the way, Sans,” she started speaking all of a sudden, “I might have something to ask of you, if you do not mind...”

“Huh? What’s it, Tori?”

She seemed a little... anxious, and he didn’t like seeing her like that. So of course he would help, as long as he could.

“Well... Would it be okay to ask you to come and take care of Frisk tomorrow again?” she timidly asked once she’d put her quiche in the oven. “Papyrus and I have been searching for a gift all day, but your brother had so many wonderful ideas that I have not been able to make my decision...”

Yeah... Papyrus was great. No matter the topic, he always had a bunch of cool, original ideas. So Sans could definitely see why Tori hadn’t been able to choose what she wanted to buy for the kid.

“Sure,” he answered.

It wasn’t like it would really bother him to watch over the kid for one more day, he guessed.

* * *

Sans waved one last time at Frisk, before turning around to follow his brother home.

“Sans, did you know that humans have a Santa too? I can’t believe that!”

Papyrus was speaking loudly with both of his hands on his hip bones, as usual. The shorter skeleton walked beside him with his hands inside the pockets of his jacket, and a big grin plastered on his face.  
Today had been a long day, and he was feeling bone tired – he almost interrupted his brother to tell him that, but Papyrus was quicker as he kept telling him exactly how his gift-hunting trip with Toriel had gone.

“Except theirs is really lazy, and not really talented at finding the perfect gift,” he went on and crossed his arms. “Thankfully, I, the great Papyrus, was here to save the day once again!”

So apparently, Toriel had told him their goal was to help the human Santa choose a gift for Frisk... and Papyrus had believed her, obviously. Sans silently thanked his favorite goat lady for not ruining his brother’s dreams; if he could keep believing a little longer that some kind of superhero actually rewarded human and monster kids for being nice, that was for the best.

“That’s great, bro,” he distractedly answered, although he’d actually listened quite carefully to the other skeleton’s story. “So, what did you choose?”

“Well, you see, Sans, the human would be extremely happy to get the chance to taste my famous spaghetti again,” he explained. “However, they would recognize their favorite recipe instantly! So, since these human stores happen to sell a lot of different types of pasta...”

Huh...  
Sans wasn’t sure he liked where this was going, but he let his brother finish anyway.

“I, the great Papyrus, figured out the solution! I shall search the Internet to discover the second-best type of pasta, and invent a new recipe! There is no way this one will be as great as my spaghetti – but it will be almost as good, and then, Human Santa will be sure to make our human jump for delirious joy! Nyeh heh heh heh!”

“That’s... That’s a good idea, bro.”

But if this was the kind of ideas he’d been having all day... then maybe Sans would have to get involved and lend Toriel a hand in choosing that gift, in the end.


End file.
